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Show Wonders of the Watch. Down at one of the snllors boarding-houses boarding-houses tho other night an old gentleman, gentle-man, a recent arrival on a Morgan lino steamer, explained to a Kroup ot Interested Inter-ested listeners the wonders of nn ordinary ordi-nary watch. "Have ou over pause I to think of tho wonderfulness of your timekeepers?" he asked. "Why, look nt the little wheels and screws and springs. Notice the busy llttlo fljwheel ns It Hies to and fro unceasingly, day nnd night, jcar In and jear out. Thl marvnlous little machine," continued the speaker, nt tho same tltno taklncj ftom his pocket an ordlnnry opcn-fncM silver watch, "Is tho result of hundreds of years of study nnd experiment. The watch I have bo-foro bo-foro mo Is composed of OS distinct parts, and Its manufacture embiacca moro than 5000 distinct nnd snparuto operations, home of the smallest screws aro so mlnuto that tho unulded oo cannot distinguish them from steel filings fil-ings or specks of dust. Under a powerful pow-erful magnifying glass n, perfect screw Is revealed. The silt In the head Is 1-5000 of nn Inch wide. It takos 305,000 of theso screws to weigh a pound, nnd a pound Is worth JlBRi The hnlr spring Is a strip of tho finest steel about 11, Inches long and 1-1000 of an Inch wide nnd 57-10,000 of nn Inch thick. It la colled up In Bplral form and finely tempered. Tho process of tempering these springs was long held ns a secret by tho fortunate few who possessed the knowledge, nnd even today I doubt If there nio live men on the Atlantic sen-lioard sen-lioard that know It Their manufacture manufac-ture requires gteat skill nnd cure The strip Is gauged to 51-1000 of nn Inch but no measuring Instrument has us ot been devised capable of line enough gouging to determine beforeh md what tho sliongtli nf the finished spilng will be. A 1-20 000 pnrt of nn Inch dlffircme will make n difference In the running of tho watch of about six minutes to tho hour. The value of theso springs when placed In watches Is enormous In pioportlon to tho material from whkh they are mode. A comparison will give a good Idea. A ton of gold Is worth approximately $600,000. A ton of steel when made up Into hair springs Is worth J7.875.000, or 1214 tlma tho vnluo of puro Rold, llnlr rprlng wire weighs 1-20 nf n grnln to the inch One mllo of wire weighs less than eight ounces. Tho bal inco wheel makes live vibrations every second. TOO every minutes. 18 000 every hour, 412-000 412-000 every dny nnd l.tSsoooo every jenr. At each vibration It rotates about one and one-quarter times, which makes I.IOO.OOO revolutions each enr. In ordei that you may better tinderstnnd the stupendous amount of labor pi r-forined r-forined by llieso liny winks, let m mike a few rompnrlsons Tnke, for Illustration, a locomotive with six-foot drlvliu; wheels. Let Its wheels be run until It shnll have eoveied a distance equal to 2 complete circuits of tho earth. All this a watch does without other attention than winding-, every twenty-four hours. And another thing, an engine hns to be repaired nl east 12 times a jeor, but there are not many watches that Ate even cleaned onco a )car. Onlveston News. |